Volkswagen’s chief executive officer (CEO) Oliver Blume has revealed in an interview with the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that the company is in the process of negotiating with the US government over potential tariff relief and ongoing US investments.
Although the main contact for these talks is the US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, Blume shared that these issues also reached the US president, Donald Trump.
Blume highlighted that the Volkswagen Group was keen on continuing to invest in the US, if a suitable agreement on tariffs could be reached. The group already has more than 20,000 direct employees in the US, with more than 55,000 indirect employees.
It builds school buses, cars and trucks. Some of its most popular models are the Atlas, the Passat and the Atlas Cross Sport, which are all produced at the Chattanooga Assembly Plant in Tennessee. This plant also assembles Volkswagen’s all-electric ID.4 model.
The German car company also partners with US electric vehicle (EV) company, Rivian, in order to produce next-generation EV architectures and platforms. This tie-up focuses on bringing together Volkswagen’s Modular Electric Drive Matrix (MEB) platform with Rivian’s battery design and software expertise.
Blume emphasised that Volkswagen would be very likely to build significantly on these pre-existing investments and pointed out that any company which invests in a country should ideally be offered better terms.
German newspaper Handelsblatt, meanwhile, reported that Mercedes-Benz and BMW may also be trying to work out a possible deal with the US.
Euronews has contacted them for comment.
